Fears over local hospital chaos

Patients who need to attend the Emergency Departments at Portiuncula and Roscommon Hospitals could face a chaotic surge in demand for a reduced service unless a current shortage of doctors is addressed before a July 11 deadline. Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten has said there is a serious risk the 24-hour Emergency Department at Roscommon Hospital will be forced to reduce its hours to an 8am to 8pm service from Monday to Friday, as well as closing for weekends at 5pm on Friday. This would lead to a major increase in demand for services at Portiuncula Hospital, which is currently struggling to staff its own Emergency Department due to the shortage of junior or non-consultant hospital doctors due to take up new contracts from July 11. Dr Orla Smithwick, a consultant at the Portiuncula Emergency Department, told the Westmeath Independent on Monday that "at this moment in time we do not have enough staff for July". She said any repercussions this would have on services were impossible to predict at this point, due to the ongoing efforts that are being made to recruit staff. Deputy Naughten said this week that he believed the current deficit in staff at Portiuncula would be resolved. However, he acknowledged that there would be a "huge impact" on the Ballinasloe facility, and on the ambulance service in the area, if the Emergency Department's hours in Roscommon were curtailed. "We have a shortage of junior doctors. I know (Health Minister James Reilly) is actively working on it and is having talks with the Medical Council and the training facilities with a view to solving this," he said. Speaking on RTE's Frontline programme on Monday, Minister Reilly said he didn't believe the country's major hospitals would have to curtail their services from July 11, but that smaller hospitals could well be affected. "We may very well end up with some accident and emergency departments that can't be safely manned. I can certainly say this much, it will not be any of the major ones... it is the small rural hospitals where we're going to have real difficulty," he said. Minister Reilly added that he was looking at changing the current registration system for non EU doctors to make it easier for them to come and work in Ireland. Padraig Mulligan, the chairperson of the Portiuncula Hospital Action Committee, said the committee was monitoring the situation closely. "The bottom line is that without junior doctors all services would be curtailed, not just accident and emergency," he said. "It is absolutely the case there will be a major pressure on Portiuncula if the services at Roscommon Hospital are cut back. We are monitoring this very closely. If it appears that it is going to be a major issue we will be acting very quickly to address it." A spokesperson for the HSE stated yesterday (Tuesday) that the situation was "evolving" constantly.